


love in all seasons

by verity



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Digital Art, F/M, Inspired by Art, Language of Flowers, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-21
Updated: 2012-05-21
Packaged: 2017-11-05 18:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/409516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verity/pseuds/verity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, this one time, I made some Snape/Hermione art nouveau fanart. And then I wrote a series of verses based on the language of flowers to accompany it, because, you know, that seemed like a great idea at the time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love in all seasons

**Author's Note:**

> I made this image following this awesome [Art Nouveau tutorial](http://cassiopeiaart.deviantart.com/art/Art-Nouveau-Tutorial-197750141) by CassiopeiaArt at DA, just because it seemed like something that might make a neat image.
> 
> Then I wrote six accompanying verses based on the flowers I chose to use in the image, because that seemed like a great idea at the time. Gorse didn't actually make it into the image, but whatever, THEMES.
> 
> (Apologies for the lack of image credits - I stalled on this months ago and have lost the URLs. Hermione is portrayed by the fabulous Julia Sawalha here.)

  


**scarlet lily: "high-souled aspirations"**  
Pages turn in his hands like leaves tossed by wind.  
The answer's not here. He scratches, crabbed writing  
In the wide columns that frame the void.

An apt metaphor for his yearning, for her,  
a puzzle unsolved, abiding, for that sure  
and steadfast unfolding.

 

**white clover: "I promise"**  
He mixes wormwood and asphodel garnished  
With the forsaken innocence of white clover.  
Beyond dreams, the only peace left to him.

For the child, he'll temper this, knowing  
Tomorrow's dawn will rise, even when this night  
Seems set to eternal haunting.

 

**chestnut: "do me justice"**  
Pages turn in his hands like leaves tossed by wind.  
One scroll unspools into another, and his scarlet pools  
In the margins like her waving red hair.

There is no fight and yet he pushes on, for her,  
Not penance or for the promised light. He marks and brews  
and marks the days with chestnut and vetiver.

 

**eglantine rose: "a wound to heal"**  
He's hardest on the ones who yearn, the ones  
Who follow questions like blinded horses up a path  
To drink from inquiry's bitter cup.

An unwelcome flag, her hand waves daily,  
and her hair teems like sweet briar, stubborn  
as her eager brow, her hungry mouth.

 

**ivy: "dependence, endurance"**  
Time climbs like ivy on this unloved house,  
Where nothing grows and little changes, and yet  
He returns, doesn't he, time and time again. 

In the sitting room he paces, waiting, for her,  
His last tie to the Order, bearer of news,  
Loyal and certain as the surging tide.

  
  
**gorse: "love in all seasons"**  
To a girl like a lily he pledged his sorry life  
And paltry service, buried them in cool earth,  
Expecting nothing to flower.

She blossoms in the sun, grows in dry places,  
Withstands heat and fire like the rock beneath her,  
And something of her blooms in all seasons.


End file.
